I recently had the opportunity to chat with Sherry Gunther-Shugarman, CEO of Popstar Club, which is the manufacturer of the fresh, new doll line, The Beatrix Girls. Sherry gave me an overview of what makes her doll line so unique, and why girls are going to be clamoring for them this holiday season.

Where did you get the idea for Beatrix Girls?

The Beatrix Girls came out of the idea of tying music and dolls together. Ultimately the approach to this was to create a multiplatform brand that really reaches kids everywhere that they are, recognizing that kids are not just watching TV and they’re not just playing with dolls or toys, they’re not just online playing games or being social, they’re doing all of the above. A forward-thinking property really needed to have presence in all of those mediums and to have an integration between all of those formats ingrained in its DNA.

The webisodes are done in a very unique way. How did you come about using that style?

It’s interesting because the natural for me was to go with animation as I spent over 20 years in animation, but there were a lot of things that attracted me to doing it this way, creating webisodes that have the dolls featured interacting in real life. It comes out of the fact that the concept itself has the girls as real. So they’re real and they interact in our world. They’re a real pop star band, we’re creating real music, not composed music like we would for a toy property or an animated show, but real, credible, pop music written by a platinum-winning writer/producer, mixed by a Grammy-winning engineer, so this is really relevant, today, great music and so we really want to sell them as true pop stars.

Animation oftentimes, especially when doing them based on a product or especially dolls, skews a little bit younger, and we really wanted to have the cool factor and have these be edgier. The medium that we used felt so much more current and fresh and innovative and YouTube generation-like and it felt much more fitting to the brand itself. It gives the dolls the credibility of being real in our world. They have a real human manager, they perform in real venues, so it allows us to play up that real factor for them. And then the scale gives us a lot of humor opportunities for 12-inch dolls interacting in a life-size world.

The really nice side effect that we found is that girls are really responding to the fact that they can relate to the way it was done because it was shot on purpose with hands showing and manipulating the dolls. The idea was that kids could really relate to it and feel like I can do that, I can get four dolls and with my friends create a scene and a scenario.

That’s kind of what we were going for. We were going for rather than just sort of just straight, weak, almost too young-skewing animation. We wanted it to be edgier and quirky and fun and hilarious and this medium allowed us to do that, to have that feel to it.

With an official launch still to come this year, The Beatrix Girls brand has already announced nine new licensing agreements after its successful introduction at the International Licensing Show. The new line of collectible pop-star dolls has expanded since its promotional agreement with Peavey Electronics to add new brand partners in the teen/tween market. Licensing deals, including apparel, bags and backpacks, accessories, back-to-school, bedding, stationery, footwear, headwear, and more, were brokered by the licensing firm AALMG.

The Beatrix Girls band members—Brayden, Ainsley, Lark, and Chantal—produce real music that kids can collect. Each pop-star has her own developed personality, making it not only possible for her to live and interact in the human world, but for kids to vicariously live the fantasy of being a pop-star through play.

Entertainment One Family announces the U.S. expansion of the Peppa Pig brand. Based on the Nick Jr. animated television series Peppa Pig, the licensing deals will mark the brand’s U.S. debut in several categories: games and puzzles, backpacks and lunch kits, health, beauty and accessories, novelty gear, and magazine publishing.

The deal includes TCG‘s Tumble & Spin memory game and Fast Forward‘s Peppa Pig backpacks and lunch kits for children ages 2 to 6. Added Extras will produce a line of hair accessories, bath and hair products, lip balm, and costume jewelry. Underground Toys will produce an assortment of collectible gear for Peppa fans of all ages.

In addition to the new licensing deals, the brand will launch the following line extensions: Redan Publishing will dedicated an issue of their interactive magazine to Peppa Pig for children, Fisher-Price will release new Bedtime Peppa plush dolls and Muddy Puddles Bathtime Peppa toys, and an assortment of new board, softcover, and hardcover books will be launched in this year by Scholastic and Candlewick Press. Entertainment One’s new DVD Bubbles will include ten fun-filled episodes featuring wholesome entertainment for the entire family. All products are set to be released throughout the remainder of this year and 2014.

New Products

Moose Toys launched Pikmi Pops, its newest collectible toy. Pikmi Pops come with a plush character, an assortment of surprises including stickers and charms, and a message of encouragement, which are all delivered inside a lollipop package. Each character also comes with a hang loop and a lanyard. Videos featuring Pikimi Pops have already amassed millions [...]

Elemental Path launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to support its newest product in the CogniToys family, STEMosaur. The STEMosaur is a customizable toy that doubles as a learning companion for children, with a more hands-on approach featuring science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) elements, as well as lessons in coding. The Indiegogo campaign aims to raise [...]

3Doodler partnered with Cartoon Network for its 3Doodler Start Powerpuff Yourself Pen Set and Activity Kit. The kit features a special edition 3Doodler Start Pen, new themed DoodleMolds, DoodleBlocks, and a new plastic color pallete for kids to create their own Powerpuff adventures.

K’NEX brought back its Kid K’NEX building set line for kids ages 3 and up. The line is designed to get kids’ imaginations active with colorful, kid-friendly, made-in-the-USA rods, connectors, and blocks. Each set comes with building ideas or kids can come up with their own designs. The sets also aid with growing key developmental abilities [...]

Jay@Play will launch its new Playbrites Magical Fun Faces line, available at Toys “R” Us stores nationwide and online this September. Playbrites are a line of characters that light up to turn any ceiling into a magical light show. Kids can add different accessories to each character, such as eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. All [...]